Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Smithsonian’s Wiggle and Stomp

Send your youngest students on a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park with the free app, Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp. Using the app, your students, with the help of Ada, the Zookeeper, learn about flamingos, lions, mole rats, pandas, and so many more animals. They use the virtual Shutterbug camera to snap pictures of animals they find on their journey throughout the game. The app is designed to be used by individual players; it will adapt itself to the level of the user.

If you like Shutterbugs, you’ll want to keep a lookout on the Smithsonian Science Education site for the upcoming games, Habitats and Memory Watch.

Maker Faire: The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth

There are Maker Fairs all over the world, and they are all about innovation. According to Maker Media, Maker Fairs are filled with the excitement and energy of a county fair. They are our school science fairs and innovation conventions expanded with the minds of all ages and subject areas such as science, engineering, art, performance, and crafts. Maker Fair participants are given the opportunity to show how they created their idea or product and what their creation can do. If there’s a Maker Fair coming to your community, encourage your students to attend and perhaps even participate.

The Maker movement promotes a DIY (Do It Yourself) attitude. It’s about practical learning and creativity. For the many students who don’t find school subjects interesting, the concept of creating brings action into STEM studies. Students become inventors, developers, designers, programmers, mathematicians, and scientists while still in school.

Inspiring Girls in STEM

The Huffington Post article, “This Is What Inspires Girls in STEM”, includes answers to the question, “What inspires you?”, which was asked of over 1000 who were interested, aspiring to, or engaged in STEM careers.  Their answers included the ability to: make a positive impact on people’s lives, be involved in research to find a cure for diseases, move society away from “misunderstanding and ignorance”, learn how to sustain life, give students memorable scientific experiences, discover what we do not know, make the most of my abilities, protect the natural surroundings I love, explore all things “bizarre”, learn about the power of the human mind—the list goes on.  The answers are enough to inspire, aren’t they? A 19-year-old biology researcher and scientific writer answered with this phrase, “The sensation of beginning to understand something which cannot be comprehended, like the size of the universe.”

Map of Gender Gap In Science

A UNESCO Gender Gap in Science map from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, October 2012, is called a rough picture, because data from the United States, Canada, China, and some other countries are missing. The reason given was “lack of data.” Even so, the map is quite interesting. It shows that South America is doing a good job of including women in science careers, while most European, African, and Asian countries aren’t. According to Eileen Pollack of the New York Times, the problem of gender inequality in science isn’t due to differences in gender, but rather differences in culture. 

As for how the United States would do on this map, Pollack writes, “Only one-fifth of physics Ph.D’s in this country are awarded to women, and only about half of those women are American; of all the physics professors in the united States, only 14% are women.” That’s only physics, but . . . .

Time-Traveling App

Back in Time, an IOS app that can be used with all ages, is described as best for Grades 6-12. The site TeachThought calls in an innovative educational app, and although it comes at a high ($7.99) price as apps go, it is sure to capture your interest and that of your students. It includes all subject areas. With a clock as a time-machine, it takes the user on a journey through history. TeachThought says that it “visualizes the mind-numbing scale of history.” There’s a trailer you can watch to determine if you want to purchase Back in Time and then travel with your students through time whenever you want.

Grow Teen Enthusiasm for Science

Spartici.org is a place for teens to enjoy excellent content related to the STEM subject areas. The site is a project of Twin Cities Public Television and 3M and is designed as a mobile destination complete with “articles, videos, games, and hands-on activities from hundreds of sites, all vetted by a team of experts who scour the Web for quality teen-appropriate content.” At Spartici, students interact through social and game features. They can also share, rank, and comment on content. Students who have used the site say that it is great for papers and reports, and they appreciate that it is both fun and educational.

3D Virtual Field Trip Simulation

Maria Harrington, an Assistant Professor at Slippery Rock University, is working on the development of 3D, high fidelity virtual experiences in which people learn by entering a virtual environment. Her company, Virtual Field Trips LLC offers “simulations for exploration, discovery, and intrinsic learning designed for the young child in all of us.”  Public schools qualify for the company’s educational license.

Harrington’s first field trip features the Trillium Trail, an area in Fox Chapel, PA. Students at the O’Hara Elementary School in Fox Chapel piloted the program. With the software, they took off on the virtual trail learning as they went while enjoying a scientifically accurate 360-degree view of their surroundings. Armed by the learning they gained on their virtual trip, the students hiked the trail in real life. According to those who have experienced “Trillium Trail”, it is like “walking into a painting” and others say it is “more real than real.”

ALA Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2013

The American Library Association, always a trusted source for recommendations, provides a list of apps that it considers “of exceptional value to inquiry-based learning . . .”  These are apps that encourage students to be innovative and creative as they engage in collaboration with others. Categories on the list include: Books, STEM, Organization & Management, Social Sciences, and Content Creation. A few of the apps on the ALA Best App List are: Shakespeare in Bits, Got to Have Music, Operation Math, SimplePhysics, Tinkerbox, Dropbox, Evernote, Socrative, News-O-Matic: Daily for Kids, GarageBand, and Educreations. There are links to all the apps on the list.

STEM Jobs by 2018

We hear so much about future job opportunities for students who excel in STEM subjects, but exactly what types of careers in these areas are predicted to be the most promising? According to data from US-BLS Employment Projections, 2008-2018, 71% of jobs will be related to computing, 16% in traditional engineering, 4% in life sciences, 2% in mathematics, and 7% in physical sciences. When the Computer job area is segmented, it looks like 27% of jobs will be available in software engineering, 21% in computer networking, 10% in systems analysis, 2% in database administration, 7% in computer support, 1% in research, and 3% other.

Considering these statistics, schools would be wise to offer both introductory courses in computer science as well as Advanced Placement courses.